After taking a hard look recently at the Harpguitars.net Players page, I realized it was overdue for an extensive overhaul. I spent a fair amount of time coming up with a new system that was practical, fair and consistent (it was interesting to see where some folks ended up). The result: even with the incredible proliferation of new players, I’ve managed to streamline the page quite a lot.

Gathering performers of the last 13 years remain at the top, split into three newly-organized groups. Frank Doucette’s working on updating the blurbs – if you have new information and/or a newer photo you want to include, please email to me.

The next general section of Contemporary Music Players has been simplified into one single apolitical list. Gone are “Non-Conventional,” “Peripheral,” “Honorable Mention” and “(Un)notable Wikipedia” categories. Rather than mentioning all these musicians (rock stars who pose with Gibsons, name artists who commissioned a novelty guitar with a floating 7th string, and similar fringe situations), they are omitted from what is now a simple page of genuine “harp guitarists.”

This section currently has over 80 names, including those from my original 2004 posting to today’s latest discoveries. There is no hierarchy or separation by perceived career, talent or style. If you think you belong there, let me know. A web site, video, recording or other visibility will obviously help.

Facebook aside, I still believe in the value of a central Internet resource and archive of the unique harp guitar world – both the historical record and the current state of the art – and at the moment, Harpguitars.net still seems to be it. For those of you stumbling onto this blog post with no clue as to who I am, the site history is here and my bona fides here.

P.S: As I tackle these updates, I’m trying to make the pages more iPhone friendly (without re-inventing the wheel for the entire site of several hundred pages).

March 9th, 2016

2 comments so far

sean woolley Says:
March 10th, 2016 at 8:35 am

Dear Gregg. Thank you for all the work you must of put in to updating the players page. I didn’t count, but at a guess I’d say about 300 players. It will take me ages to check out all the links to the artists. So much shared information that cannot be found anywhere else. A shame that there is not more sharing in return…
Best wishes, Sean.

Stephen Silva Says:
March 13th, 2016 at 7:55 am

Glad to see Dan Schwartz on the new list, and we need to get some bio info for Claude Laflamme!

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